Key ESFA functions, including non-financial regulation of academies in preparation for a bigger academy sector, to be moved in-house to the Department for Education, documents reveal

Key aspects of work currently performed by England’s Education and Skills Funding Agency are to be moved to be under the more direct control of the Department for Education amid major reforms of the way the department operates, Education Uncovered can reveal.

The regulation of academies, other than financial regulation, will be taken in-house at the DfE under a beefed-up regional operation, with the department planning for growth in the number of non-local authority maintained schools following publication of a white paper on the schools system next month.

And skills policy in the post-16 field, much of which is now carried out by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will also be moved to be part of the core DfE, as this field gets a higher profile under post-Brexit government plans to boost its job-related skills policies.

The moves come following a six-month DfE review of the work of the ESFA, carried out by the former Ofsted chief inspector and DfE permanent secretary Sir David Bell. It is expected to be published next week, but the main findings, and the government’s response, have been seen by this website. The review made 46 recommendations, 44 of which are being accepted in full by the DfE.

As has been reported already, the changes will see a rejigging of England’s Regional Schools Commissioner areas, with London getting its first region for the first time since the commissioners were introduced, at speed, back in 2014.